Harley Granville Barker was born in 1877. He was married twice, first to the actress Lillah McCarthy and later to the heiress Helen Huntington.  He had no children.  He made his acting debut acting at the age of 14 and continued working as an actor, playing Richard II at the age of 22 in William Poel’s 1899 production for the Elizabethan Stage Society.
 
That same year he wrote his first play, The Marrying of Ann Leete, which was performed by the Stage Society. It has since been revived at the RSC and the Orange Tree. His next play The Voysey Inheritance was premiered in 1905 at the Court Theatre (now the Royal Court) as part of his three seasons there co-produced by J E Vedrenne (1904-07). Waste was banned by the Lord Chamberlain in 1907 and did not reach the London stage until 1936. Granville Barker’s other plays are The Madras House, His Majesty, The Secret Life, Rococo, Vote by Ballet, and Farewell to the Theatre.
 
Granville Barker directed the majority of the 37 plays presented at the Court Vedrenne-Barker seasons, and continued with his visionary productions of Shakespeare at the Savoy from 1912 - 1914. He is widely regarded as the first great British theatre director.
 
His 1907 pamphlet Scheme and Estimates for a National Theatre, co-written with William Archer, was the first detailed plan for a British national theatre.
 
Later in life Granville Barker left the theatre and worked as a lecturer at Cambridge, Oxford, Yale and Harvard.  His hugely influential Prefaces to Shakespeare were published between 1927 and 1948.
 
Harley Granville Barker died in Paris in 1946.

Director Samuel West:

‘The events of Waste could have happened this morning. In fact, they probably did. Politicians are still being brought down by sex scandals; the Establishment still connives to cover up its elected representatives’ misdeeds. And plays are still banned – the enforced closure of Bezhti at Birmingham Rep just three years ago represented de facto censorship. It is only since 1968 that we have not had a Lord Chamberlain officially empowered to ban plays…
I’m delighted to be directing Waste as my first show at the Almeida. Although it’s my local theatre, I’ve never worked here. I find myself following gratefully in Granville Barker’s footsteps – he too was an actor, director and artistic director…
Granville Barker’s work is inspiring, intriguing and insufficiently performed. A play of this scale (fourteen actors, three big sets) is rarely attempted by any theatre. I hope you enjoy it.’
 
Extract from Almeida Theatre's Circle of Supporters' Autumn 2008 newsletter. 

More information
 

Granville Barker was asked to remove extensive references to ‘a criminal operation’ from his original version of Waste (1907).  He declined, and the play was refused a license by the Censor (it was presented as a private performance by the Stage Society in November 1907, with Granville Barker playing Trebell). The 1907 script was eventually licensed in 1920, but not performed.  Barker completely rewrote the play in 1926 (the version being performed at the Almeida), and this version was finally played in public in 1937.

 

Sir Peter Hall on Waste and censorship in theatre

 

- to read article click here

 

 

Scandal 

 

Then  
Two years ago, Lloyd George publishes the July 1922 Honours list. The Conservative Party blow the whistle on what becomes known as the ‘Cash for Peerages’ scandal. Lloyd George is forced to concede a parliamentary debate on the issue and the 1925 Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act makes the sale of peerages illegal. 
 
Now
Two years ago, Scotland Yard confirms that it is investigating complaints made about the Labour Party’s abuse of the honours system. The investigation focuses on whether the 1925 Honours (Prevention of Abuses) Act has been followed, or if honours have been given by Labour in return for loans or donations. A sixteen-month investigation questions 136 people, including Tony Blair three times; he becomes the first British serving Prime Minister to be interviewed by police as part of a criminal investigation. Despite four arrests, no charges are brought.
 
 
Parliamentary Politics
 
Then
Britain has three governments during 1924. At the beginning of year Ramsay MacDonald becomes Britain’s first Labour Prime Minister, leading a minority government following Stanley Baldwin's resignation. Soon after, Baldwin establishes the Conservative Consultative Committee - the first organised Shadow Cabinet. Another General Election takes place on 29^th October. It is won by the Conservative Party and Baldwin returns as Prime Minister. 
 
Now 
Britain is in its second year of a Gordon Brown premiership and has been under Labour rule since 1997. This year Labour has suffered defeats in the London mayoral election, local elections and the Crewe and Nantwich, Henley and Glasgow East by-elections. In May, Labour recorded its worst ever opinion poll rating since records began in 1943, of 23%.
 
 
Censorship
 
Then 
The Licensing Act passed by Robert Walpole in 1737 is still law. This means that the Lord Chamberlain has power to approve any play before it is staged. The original version of Waste (1907) is refused a license. 
 
Now 
The Theatres Act (1968) removes the censor from the British stage.  However, since this date several plays have either been cancelled or closed early. Notorious cases include Perdition by Jim Allen at the Royal Court in 1987 and Behzti by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti at Birmingham Rep in 2004.
 
In 2005 the Labour party took the Racial and Religious Hatred Act through the House of Commons. The Lords suggested amendments which required the intention and not just the possibility of inciting religious hatred. These amendments were accepted by the Commons - Tony Blair’s second defeat of the 2005 Parliament.
 
Presently, if a ‘public performance of a play is given which involves the use of threatening words or behaviour, any person who presents or directs the performance is guilty of an offence if he intends thereby to stir up religious hatred’.
 
 
Disestablishment
 
Then
The British Monarch has the constitutional title ‘Supreme Governor of the Church of England’. The Canons of the Church of England have to swear an oath of loyalty to the Monarch which states that the Monarch ‘has supreme authority over all persons in all causes, as well ecclesiastical as civil.’ The Church of England Assembly (Powers) Act of 1919 means the Church Assembly must have any changes to the Church examined by a joint committee of both Houses of Parliament and then approved by a vote of each House, before being submitted to the Queen for Royal Assent.

Now 
The British Monarch has the constitutional title ‘Supreme Governor of the Church of England’. The Canons of the Church of England have to swear an oath of loyalty to the Monarch which states that the Monarch ‘has supreme authority over all persons in all causes, as well ecclesiastical as civil.’ The Church of England has a legislative body, the General Synod. Synod can create two types of legislation, Measures and Canons. Measures have to be approved but cannot be amended by the UK Parliament before receiving the Royal Assent and becoming part of the law of England.
 
Birth Control

Then
Resolution 68 from the 1920 Lambeth Conference, the decennial assembly of Anglican Communion Bishops:
‘We utter an emphatic warning against the use of unnatural means for the avoidance of conception, together with the grave dangers - physical, moral and religious - thereby incurred, and against the evils with which the extension of such use threatens the race. In opposition to the teaching which, under the name of science and religion, encourages married people in the deliberate cultivation of sexual union as an end in itself, we steadfastly uphold what must always be regarded as the governing considerations of Christian marriage. One is ... the continuation of the race through the gift and heritage of children; the other is the paramount importance in married life of deliberate and thoughtful self-control.’
 
In 1921 Marie Stopes opens the first British Birth Control clinic at 61 Marlborough Road, Holloway.
 
Now 
From a Parliamentary Debate, Monday 3^rd July 2006. Emily Thornberry (Labour, Islington South & Finsbury) is responding to Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative, Shrewsbury & Atcham):
 
‘The right is fundamentally that of the women who carries and bears the child. We are not going to agree on that, just as I am not likely to agree with Cardinal Keith O’Brien who, as I understand it, is arguing for a restriction on the time during which the abortion should be illegal and that there should be no abortions, yet he joins the debate. I believe it is women, not Parliament or the Church, who should be making such decisions.’
 
Suffrage
 
Then 
Following the First World War, the Representation of the People Act (1918) rules that men can vote from the age of 21 and women from the age of 30. Britain is still four years away from equalising the age of male and female suffrage, and 24 years away from abolishing plural voting and establishing a ‘one person, one vote’ system.
 
Now 
Men and women can vote from the age of 18. 
                                                                        
  Henry Bell.

 

To read these articles and more, download the production programme as a PDF document

 

Jeany Spark, who plays Lucy Davenport, talks about her involvement in the Almeida production of Waste

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Read our educational resource pack on Waste